The Complete Chess Course From Beginning To Winning Chess! by Fred Reinfeld 21st Century Edition Fred Reinfeld Chess Classics Peter Kurzdorfer, General Editor 2016 Russell Enterprises, Inc. Milford, CT USA 1 The Complete Chess Course The Complete Chess Course From Beginning to Winning Chess! © Copyright 2016 Donald Reinfeld and Judith Reinfeld Fred Reinfeld Chess Classics – Peter Kurzdorfer, General Editor ISBN: 978-1-941270-24-0 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-941270-25-7 All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any manner or form whatsoever or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Published by: Russell Enterprises, Inc. PO Box 3131 Milford, CT 06460 USA http://www.russell-enterprises.com [email protected] The publisher and editor wish to express their thanks to David MacEnulty for his permission to use the explanation of English Algebraic Notation as set forth in his book My First Book of Chess Tactics. Cover design by Janel Lowrance Printed in the United States of America 2 Table of Contents From the Editor 5 Introduction 6 Book One – The Basic Rules of Chess How the Pieces Move 8 Check and Checkmate 13 Castling 16 Additional Powers of the Pawn 18 How the Moves Are Recorded 20 Relative Values of the Chess Forces 25 How Games Are Drawn 25 Book Two – The Nine Bad Moves (1) Neglecting Development of Your Pieces 30 (2) Exposing Your King to Attack 35 (3) Making Too Many Queen Moves in the Opening 39 (4) Grabbing Pawns Thoughtlessly 42 (5) Weakening Your Castled Position 47 (6) Getting Pinned 54 (7) Failing to Guard against Captures 60 (8) Underestimating Your Opponent’s Threats 64 (9) Losing a Won Game 68 Book Three – How to Play the White Pieces (1) How to Control the Center 74 (2) How to Exploit Your Superior Development 77 (3) How to Exploit Your Superior Mobility 82 (4) How to Exploit Black’s Premature Opening Up of the Position 87 (5) How to Exploit Black’s Premature Counterattack 91 (6) How to Exploit Black’s Weakening Pawn Moves 94 (7) How to Exploit Black’s Errors of Judgment 100 (8) Opening Mistakes White Should Avoid 105 Book Four – How to Play the Black Pieces (1) How to Exploit White’s Weaknesses 108 (2) How to Seize the Initiative 115 (3) How to Play against Gambits 120 (4) How to Defend against a Powerful Attack 127 (5) How to Seize the Attack 135 (6) Opening Mistakes Black Should Avoid 138 Book Five – How to Win When You’re Ahead (1) Superior Force Should Win! 142 (2) The Power of Pawn Promotion 147 (3) King and Pawn Endings 150 (4) Endgames with a Piece Ahead 154 (5) Endgames with the Exchange Ahead 157 (6) Rook and Pawn Endings 160 (7) Endings with Minor Pieces 165 (8) Sundry Endings 169 (9) How to Simplify into a Won Ending 172 (10) Exceptions: Material Advantage Doesn’t Always Win 176 (11) Beware of Overconfidence! 179 3 The Complete Chess Course Book Six – How to Fight Back (1) Counterattack – How to Meet the Crisis 184 (2) Resourceful Defense – How to Simplify 188 (3) Half a Point Is Better than None 193 (4) The Defense Fumbles 197 (5) How to Fight Back: Practical Examples 201 (6) Point of No Return 213 Book Seven – How to Play the e-pawn Openings Center Game 220 Danish Gambit 220 Bishop’s Opening 221 Vienna Game 222 King’s Gambit 223 King’s Gambit Declined 226 Falkbeer Counter Gambit 226 Latvian Counter Gambit 227 Philidor’s Defense 228 Petroff’s Defense 229 Scotch Game 229 Ponziani Opening 230 Hungarian Defense 231 Giuoco Piano 231 Evans Gambit 233 Two Knights’ Defense 234 Max Lange Attack 235 Four Knights’ Game (including Three Knights’ Game) 236 Ruy Lopez 237 French Defense 242 Sicilian Defense 245 Caro-Kann Defense 248 Alekhine’s Defense 249 Scandinavian Defense 251 Nimzovich Defense 251 Pirc Defense 252 Book Eight – How to Play the d-pawn Openings Queen’s Gambit Declined 254 Albin Counter Gambit 265 Queen’s Gambit Accepted 266 Miscellaneous Double d-pawn Openings 267 Nimzo-Indian Defense 269 Queen’s Indian Defense 270 King’s Indian Defense 275 Grünfeld Defense 277 Blumenfeld Counter Gambit 280 Budapest Defense 280 Benoni Defense 281 Dutch Defense 282 Réti Opening 283 Catalan System 285 English Opening 285 Bird’s Opening 287 Editorial Notes 288 4 From the Editor Mid-20th century best-selling author Fred Reinfeld introduced thousands of players to the wonderful game of chess through his tireless efforts. His books were ubiquitous and covered every conceivable aspect of the royal game. I was one of countless chess players representing several generations who grew up surrounded by Reinfeld books. We couldn’t get enough of them! He not only taught us how to play the game well, but also implanted in us his enthusiastic passion for learning the game. Fred’s books are peppered throughout with words and phrases in italics to emphasize ideas. Moves are punctuated with single, double, and even triple exclamation marks and question marks to span the entire spectrum of emotions the moves conjure up. He had a way of reducing the most intricate, complicated combinations to their basic components. After Reinfeld explains a combination, it makes sense. Thus I am pleased and honored to be a part of bringing back my old mentor to new generations of chess players. Russell Enterprises Inc. is engaged in a project of resurrecting the immortal Reinfeld classics, republishing them with the modern algebraic notation in place of the archaic English descriptive notation that was popular years ago to make them accessible to 21st century chess players. This undertaking, begun under General Editor Bruce Alberston, has been passed on to me. So I get to reread these wonderful old books, change the notation in ChessBase, type up Fred’s snappy prose, and look out for potential errors. The few analytical errors that crop up from time to time are easily checked with the monster chess engine Fritz, which Fred never had access to. In those far-off pre-computer days, you analyzed each and every position, including any variations you thought up, with nothing more than a board and pieces, using your knowledge of the pieces’ potential. Thus the few errors are no reflection on the author’s ability or knowledge at all. I have called attention to only the most egregious ones, indicated by an asterisk, and appearing on page 288. They certainly do not detract at all from the fresh charm he imparts on each and every position he looks at. The Complete Chess Course in particular was originally brought out as a series of separate books that Fred later combined. The only part that is slightly out of date is his treatment of the openings, which are rather naïve by modern standards; however, that should make no difference at the intermediate or even national master level, as I know all too well. Absorb the material included in this volume and you will play chess at a fairly high level. Or read through it all and enjoy Fred’s masterful explanations; you will certainly be entranced by his enthusiasm for the intricate relationships the pieces experience in the context of a game or even a standout plan or combination. The section on notation is the only portion of this work that Fred Reinfeld did not write. Since he used the old English descriptive notation exclusively, that section has been replaced with the gracious permission of David MacEnulty from his My First Book of Chess Tactics. Peter Kurzdorfer Olean, New York October 2015 5 The Complete Chess Course Introduction Although seven of the eight sections of this book were originally published as separate volumes, they were written with their coordination as a complete chess course in mind. Conveniently prefaced now by a new summarized review of the basic elements of chess, the resulting comprehensive whole provides the instruction that any chessplayer needs to develop a respectable degree of skill. The integrated progression of subjects is treated in the following order. A player who knows the elements but little more about chess may not need the introductory steps revealed in Book One, but he does need to be warned about the types of mistakes – neglected development and the like – that beginning and intermediate players make so frequently. He can then go on to study opening play in its larger aspects, and examine its consequences in the ensuing middlegame. From this point he proceeds to study the endgame stage, which evolves out of the middlegame previously studied. And finally, having seen the logical relationship which binds together opening, middlegame, and ending, the student is now ready to go back to the initial stage and study the chief openings in rewarding detail. With this overall scheme in mind, the reader is in a better position to appreciate the detailed treatment in each section. Book One is a summary of chess fundamentals that provides the first springboard into the “royal” game for beginners, and also serves as a refresher for the more advanced player. Book Two is a study of the nine most common mistakes made by chessplayers. These include such typical errors as failing to guard against hostile captures, underestimating the opponent’s threats, and making pawn moves that weaken the castled position. Many examples are given to show how these and other mistakes prove disastrous in the opening and middlegame.